20 Key Words

Generation

Response

Reflection

Application

Literacy

Education

Reading

Writing

Literature

Class Activity

Analysis 

Roles

Identity

Teachers

Image

Standards

Expectations

Highlights

Anecdote

Dynamics

Presentations Day 3

Today two more groups did presentations on the books they read. The first group read the book, "Write Like This," by Kelly Gallagher. At first it was hard for me to understand the ignite talk and how it related to the book but then as it went on I figured it out more. I really enjoyed the beginning part of their activity when they showed us a picture with a lot to look at for only 10 seconds. They told us to write down unusual things we saw in the picture. They did this a few times and it became funnier and funnier what people said they saw. I also liked how the poem they gave us was kind of a trick. We read it first and it seemed very depressing and hopeless but then they revealed that if we read it backwards it is different. I thought that was really cool and I would love to use that in my classroom in the future.

The second group read the book, “Nonfiction Matters,” by Stephanie Harvey. The book targets third-eighth grade. I thought this groups ignite talk was great! They were on time with their slides and had great eye contact with the class. The presenters were calm and seemed to know and enjoy what they were talking about. I also liked how they used the author’s interests as points in their presentation. They really incorporated the book into their presentation, which was great!   

Presentation Day #2

The presentations on day 2 (October 17th) were on the books, "Wondrous Words" and "Ladybugs, Tornadoes and Swirling Galaxies. The first group, "Wondrous Words" incorporated poetry into their activity and I really enjoyed it! At first they had each of us pick a line from the Rodriguez article that we read at the beginning of the semester. Once we had our line we had to read it over and over in our head to figure out how we would be saying it out loud. Then the group presenting split the class into groups and we put all of our lines together in a poem of our own. I liked how they emphasized that poetry can really be anything, it doesn’t have to rhyme and we had a lot of fun with it.

The second group was the Ladybug group. I really liked their ignite talk and thought they really enjoyed the book they read. I also thought they enjoyed telling us about it. For the activity we used sticky notes to give feedback on what we thought the books in front of the class would be about. I have done something like the sticky notes before in a science class I am currently in, but this gave it a new twist. I enjoyed the presentations and I could see myself doing both of these activities in my future classroom. 

"Don't Forget To Write" Ignite talk and Activity Reflection

After reading Don't Forget To Write I was excited to share what we learned from it with the rest of the class. At first we, as a group, weren’t sure what we wanted to do for our activity. We knew that we wanted to share a lesson straight from the book we read and we decided we wanted it to be something the rest of the class would enjoy like we did. We chose the lesson titled “Best Imaginary Vacation Ever.” It was perfect because it would get the class to think and also have fun with it creatively. When each of us in the group read through the lesson plan we realized we don’t think as creatively as we did back when we were young children. This happens naturally but we wanted to emphasize this to the class when we did the activity so they could really think outside the box and be as creative as possible. Yesterday we did our Ignite Talk and our activity and I feel that it went really well. Being the teachers in front of the class was really cool. I have done presentations in front of classes before but actually doing an activity directed by us with the class was new and exciting. We split the class into four groups for the activity with one of us at each group. Since we had given the class examples of our lesson they seemed to ease into it and have fun with it. Since they were really creative with their “Best Imaginary Vacation Ever” and were laughing and having fun, our group was really happy in the end. The Ignite talk and activity went smoothly and the class responded well to it. I can’t wait to incorporate this activity into my classroom when I am a teacher. Also I am excited to see everyone else’s Ignite talks and activities in our class.